South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) set out this year’s supervision and inspection direction for the banking sector, focusing on strengthening consumer protection and expanding inclusive finance. It plans to build consumer protection systems across the full process from financial product design to sales. It also plans to introduce a comprehensive evaluation system for inclusive finance to assess each bank’s level of implementation.

The FSS held a briefing on financial supervision work for the banking sector in 2026 on March 9, attended by executives and employees of banks and bank holding companies and officials from the Korea Federation of Banks.

In Session 1, Seok-heon Ko (고석헌), a vice president at Shinhan Financial Group, presented cases of efforts to promote inclusive finance. This was followed by the FSS’s explanation of its 2026 supervision and inspection direction for the banking sector and a question-and-answer session.

In Session 2, the FSS held small-group roundtable sessions to discuss key pending issues. Topics included ways to build consumer protection systems by stage in financial product design, review and sales, and checks on implementation of best practices in governance.

Beom-jun Kwak (곽범준), a deputy governor at the FSS, said banks are facing a rapidly changing business environment as geopolitical risks expand and money moves between financial sectors accelerate. He urged that if a fair financial environment is created for financial consumers and a virtuous cycle is built in which the banking sector and the public grow together, the current crisis could instead become an opportunity.

The FSS stressed it would support banks in rebuilding the entire process of financial product design, review and sales from a consumer protection perspective to create a fair financial environment for consumers. It also stressed it would continue to pursue measures with the banking sector to improve banks’ governance to meet public expectations and to strengthen internal controls.

It also said it would introduce a comprehensive evaluation system for inclusive finance to build a virtuous cycle in which the banking sector and the public grow together, and to support efforts to ease the financial burden of small business owners and self-employed people.

The FSS plans to comprehensively evaluate each bank’s inclusive finance implementation system and current status every year. Based on the results, it plans to communicate with bank management and boards of directors to encourage inclusive finance to take root as a management culture.

It also plans to quickly push ahead with reforms to capital regulations so that bank funds can be supplied to productive sectors.

The FSS said it would actively reflect diverse industry views and suggestions discussed at the briefing in future supervision and inspection work. It added it plans to continue strengthening communication with the banking industry and experts to carry out supervision work that reflects conditions on the ground.